Among the race for Mandla-South in Chhindwara district of Madhya Pradesh were Andhra Cements Ltd, Godawari Power and Ispat Ltd, Hindustan Zinc Ltd, Jaypee Cement Corporation Ltd and Reliance Cement Company Pvt Ltd.

It has reserves to the tune of 13.35 MT.

“Auction for Ganeshpur block, which is for power sector, began at 11 am with Rs 100 bid. For Mandla South, the auction began at Rs 1,850 per tonne while for Gare Palma IV/8, it started at Rs 1,675 per tonne,” an official told PTI.

To grab Gare-Palma Sector-1V/8 in Raipur district of Chhattisgarh, which has extractable reserves of 11.75 million tonnes (MT), there are eight players, including Jindal Steel and Power, which has submitted four separate bids.

Jayaswal Neco Industries Ltd, which was the previous allottee of this block, was allowed to participate in the bid by a High Court order dated March 5.

“In compliance of the orders passed by the High Court of Delhi on March 5, 2015, the following bidder (Jayaswal Neco) is added to the list of technically qualified bidders for Gare-Palma Sector-IV/8 Coal Mine.”

Jayaswal Neco has challenged the Coal Ministry’s decision rejecting the company’s technical bid earlier on the ground that its coal requirement does not meet the extractable reserves of the Gare Palma IV/8 mine.

The other bidders in race for the mine included Ambuja Cements Ltd, Bharat Aluminium Company Ltd, Hindalco Industries Ltd, Rungta Mines Ltd, Sesa Sterlite Ltd and Shri Bajrang Power and Ispat Ltd.

For Ganeshpur mine in Latehar district of Jharkhand, as many 10 players — Adani Power Ltd, Adhunik Power and Natural Resources Ltd, Adani Power Maharashtra Ltd, CESC Ltd, Essar Power Jharkhand Ltd, GMR Chhattisgarh Energy Ltd, Jaiprakash Power Ventures Ltd, Jindal Power Ltd, RKM Powergen Private Ltd and Reliance Geothermal Power Pvt Ltd — are in the race.

On March 5, in a fierce bidding that lasted over eight hours, Mandakini Exploration and Mining bagged Mandakini block in Odisha, while the Meral mine in Jharkhand went to Trimula Industries, in the process fetching an estimated Rs 19,633 crore for states.

On March 4, the first day of the second round of auction, three mines garnered Rs 11,083 crore.

There are two methods of bidding for auction of coal blocks — forward bidding (for unregulated sectors like steel, cement and captive power) and reverse bidding (for specified end use for power generation).

In the second leg, the government has put up 15 blocks for auction, which are under ready-for-production category.